Language Arts - Recognition of name, sound, and picture of long and short vowels and consonants ~ Sounding of blends and one and two vowel words ~ Reading of sentences and stories with one and two vowel words

Manuscript Writing - Formation of letters, blends, and words ~ Writing of first name

Language Arts - Phonics and Reading ~ Recognition of name, sound, and picture of long and short vowels and consonants ~ Sounding of blends, one- and two-vowel words, and words with special sounds ~ Beginning phonics rules and special sounds ~ Reading of sentences and stories from twelve books containing one- and two-vowel words and special sounds

Arithmetic - Number recognition, counting, and writing 1–100 ~ Number concepts 1–100 ~ Numbers before and after 1–100 ~ Numbers largest and smallest 1–100 ~ Counting and writing by tens to 100 ~ Counting and writing by fives to 100 ~ Counting and writing by twos to 100 ~ Number sequences by ones ~ Using number words 1–10 and first–tenth ~ Value of coins and dollar bill ~ Telling time ~ Using the calendar ~ Days of the week ~ Addition facts through 10 ~ One-step story problems in addition ~ Beginning subtraction

Social Studies - Community Helpers ~ Children of the World America: Our Great Country (map studies, famous Americans and places)

A Beka Book is committed to providing the finest educational resources for Christian schools and homeschool families. Accordingly, we routinely monitor educational trends in curriculum and assessment to evaluate them in light of traditional Christian values and objectives. Our goal is to continually improve A Beka Book materials by providing the most up-to-date content and best practices in textbooks and curriculum.

Common Core Alignment

Many Christian school educators and homeschool parents are inquiring about the sweeping national education standards known as Common Core State Standards (CCSS). While CCSS have only been written for English language arts and mathematics, they have quickly been adopted by most state departments of education, and future standardized testing appears to be aligning with them. Meanwhile, there is much controversy over the imposition of national standards, the loss of local control over education, and undesirable philosophical implications.

Because A Beka Book has historically met or exceeded recommended content standards, it is not surprising that when compared to current CCSS, the A Beka Book language arts and mathematics objectives were found to already meet almost all Common Core content standards.

However, a few differences were found. For example, in English language arts, A Beka Book fulfills or exceeds many of the standards at an earlier grade level than outlined in CCSS. Further, in mathematics, A Beka Book has chosen a different sequence of topical representation because it is more logical in presentation than what Common Core proposes.

Standards in education are often very useful when they inform content in an effort to ensure that subject matter is age appropriate, sequentially meaningful, and academically rigorous. Unfortunately, some of Common Core goes beyond content and moves into the realm of teaching methodology. Since many of these techniques do not align with our traditional Christian approach, we have purposefully chosen not to add them, but rather to leave it up to the school or individual to make decisions for implementation in keeping with their philosophy and principles of teaching and learning.

Proven Success of A Beka Book

The academic integrity of A Beka Book has been validated by the success of hundreds of thousands of students over decades. Historically, students instructed under our curriculum consistently score above national averages on standardized tests and on college entrance tests. Our skilled researchers and writers do not paraphrase progressive education textbooks; they do primary research in every subject and look at the subject from the traditional Christian point of view.

While it is healthy to be informed by educational trends and performance data, it is not the practice of A Beka Book to adjust or change its curriculum to align with each new reform that is presented in academia. We will continue our commitment to seek content and best practices that provide students with the tools they need for both academic and personal success.